I tend to write my stories starting at the story end of things. As in, I come up with a concept, then work on characters and plot, then bulk out the setting pretty much in that order. But I know a few writers who do it the other way round. They start with a setting that piques their interest, then invent the who and why and how of it all.
So last week while I was ambling the streets of Thirroul in my lunch break, I thought I’d do a writing exercise in my head. Pick a setting and see if I could wrangle myself all the other requisite elements. It was going to be a tough one and would probably take me weeks, but that was OK cos I didn’t have time to write a new story now anyway, what with that troublesome novella hanging over my head, not to mention the novel and all. Well bugger me if I didn’t have the whole fucking thing imagined, plotted, plumped and padded, frothed, frou-froued and garnished within the space of 15 minutes! I even managed two alternative endings, one straight up, the other with a twist.
So now I’m stuck with a fabby, exciting story in an exotic setting and no fucking time to get stuck into it. Yes, I have written it down in dot point form. Yes I have determined what research material I need and where to get it. No I haven’t thought up a title.
Writing: sometimes it drives you nuts. Other times it drives you more nuts.
13 Comments
Life’s just not fair, is it.
well, I guess as tragedies go its fairly light on
I’m just jealous given I haven’t managed an original idea in a month.
May I suggest taking up some other hobby? As soon as you’re too busy to write, the ideas will flow like wine
And what the hell is it about demands for endings
Demands demands demands.
🙂
I hate thinking of titles. I suck at them.
titles are hard. And very important IMHO. And yeah, I suck at them too.
Mark picks on my titles all the time. ‘Why do they always have ‘the’ in them?’
I guess if I ever get published by a big company, the title selection will be removed from me…
I occasionally jot down brilliant titles when they occur to me. Problems follow when I realise I am unable to come up with brilliant story ideas to match…
Does the title *have* to represent the work…?
yeah, I reckon it does
*sighs* I’ve read a few books where that hasn’t been the case… But yeah, I agree. Hence why I have so much trouble thinking of titles.
those books sound dodgy — what on earth is the point of a title other than to advertise and promote what lies within the prose? if you invented a fabulous perfume would you call it something like ‘Bogwater’ ?